The present invention relates to an electronic mail system and, more specifically, to an electronic mail device having vocally reproducing function, which is capable of reading aloud text of a received electronic mail and automatically reproducing audio data or displaying visual data in files attached to the electronic mail.
In Japanese Patent Publication No.10-198615, the present applicant has disclosed a technique of reading aloud electronic mail text, which enables electronic mail devices to display an image and characters of a text on the same screen by inserting an icon of image information and an icon of a program for controlling the image display points (beginning and ending timings) in character strings of the electronic mail text. Unfortunately, this technique has to insert control information in every mail text, which information is, however, unnecessary for usual electronic mails and devices unable to use these control codes. In addition, the insertion of unnecessary codes makes the electronic mail text be unpleasant to see and difficult to read.
Accordingly, a primary object of the present invention is to provide an electronic mail system that has insertion of only a character code referring to an attached music or image data file in electric mail text and enables people to enjoy vocally audio-visually reproducible electronic mail with easier operation and pleasant display, which is capable of vocally reproducing electronic mail text, detecting in the electronic mail text a character code referring to an attached thereto music or image data file and automatically reproducing (or display) the detected file content.
To realize the above object, the present invention, instead of an icon representing an image display program used in the prior art, inserts in a usual electronic mail text only a character code (character string) informing of a timing to refer and reproduce an attached file of music data or image data.
When the attached file reference character code is recognized in the process of reading aloud (by synthesized voice) the electronic mail text, the attached file data is automatically reproduced (or displayed). This can eliminate the use of unnecessary character codes, thereby making the text easier to read and reducing the quantity of data to be processed by the system.
In vocal reproduction of the electronic mail text being displayed on a display screen, the electronic mail device can reproduce music data and/or image data at timing designated by an electronic mail sender, enabling an electronic mail receiver to subsequently reproduce and display text, music or image data by a single operation. Namely, there is no need for the receiver to open each of attached files to be reproduced.
Since such music data and image data can be easily attached to an electronic mail in a well-known manner, such data may be easily transmitted and received and electronic mails may also be easily prepared.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an electronic mail system that enables electronic mail devices having function of vocally reproducing an electronic mail text to exchange electronic mails with an attachment file identifying character code (character string) inserted in a text of each electronic mail so that the devices may reproduce or display the data from the attached file designated by the character code in a given timing while vocally reproducing the electronic mail text.
A further object of the present invention is to provide an electronic mail device comprising a memory for storing an electronic mail data and attached file data, an input portion such as a keyboard for entering characters, a liquid crystal display portion for displaying characters (text) and images, a voice synthesizer control portion and a speaker and having a vocally reproducing function, which is capable of reproducing the text of a received electronic mail with an associated music data file in such a way that in process of reading aloud a text being displayed on a mail image screen it recognizes a reference character code (character string identifying the music file) inserted in the text and at this point reproduces the music data from the file identified by the character code.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an electronic mail device comprising a memory for storing an electronic mail data and attached file data, an input portion such as a keyboard for entering characters, a liquid crystal display portion for displaying characters and images, a voice synthesizer control portion and a speaker and having a vocally reproducing function, which is capable of reproducing a text of a received electronic mail with an associated image data file in such a way that, in process of reading aloud a text being displayed on a mail image screen, it recognizes a reference character code (character string for the image file) inserted in the text and at this point displays the image data from the file identified by the code.
A further object of the present invention is to provide an electronic mail device that, in the process of vocally reproducing an electronic mail content, can refer to an attached music file and reproduce music data therefrom and, after completing or stopping the reproduction of the file, can automatically return to reading the next phrase of the mail text and repeat the above cycle operation.
A further object of the present invention is to provide an electronic mail device that, in the process of vocally reproducing an electronic mail content, can refer to an attached image file and displays image data from there and, after completing or stopping the reproduction of the file, can automatically return to reading the next phrase of the mail text and repeat the above cycle operation.